Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Last ISM Fair in Cologne I had the chance to meet the founders of the French company ONE GUM. This company commercializes a tabletted (compressed) chewing gum containing Vitamins B3, B6, B12 and Caffeine (50mg per piece). The interesting feature of this product is that it is made of two layers: One of the layers contains the caffeine, which is separated from the other layer that contains the gum and the vitamins B. This allows a faster absortion of the caffeine because it is not trapped in the gum structure.

This is produced in Denmark using patented technology. Other functional gums in the market use the double-layer feature, which has advantages not only related to the release of the active ingredients, but also related to the manufacture of the product itself.

I have posted in the past about DRIVE GUM (www.drivegum.com). This gum contains caffein + guaraná.

Now the same company offers “NATUR GUM” , which instead of focusing on the energy, it goes in the direction of the natural ingredients. It claims to use 100% natural ingredients, which includes natural gum base from Central America, the flavours, the sweeteners (Xylitol and/or Stevia). Even the packaging!

There are 3 types of gum in the range, which include functional ingredients like vitamin D and fluoride, while the compnay is working on other SKU, like “Multivitamin”, “Hunger inhibitor” and “Hemp”.

Witht his additions to the previous Energy Gum, the portfolio covers a good variety of functional applications.

The owner of the company, Mr Nazareno Mario Ciccarello, has been clever enough to register the domain www.functionalgums.com

Now it seems that they decided to target the US market. Of course, with such an interesting functional gum for sure there is an opportunity. I attach the article fom Confectiomery News (link) so you can read the full information. It seems that the current formulation has changed slightly from the one I mentioned one year ago (e.g. In the “Energy on Demand” version the guaraná has disappeared and there is vitamin B5 instead). What has not changed is that the article still mentions the same two products that I described: “energy on Demand” and ” Sleep on demand”. The third product of the range “Focus on demand” is not mentioned.

What I find interesting in the article is the specific mention to the e-commerce and the intention of the company to fully develop this sales channel.

Also, it mentions the trend of “sugarfree” and “aspartamefree”, which is useful to keep in mind.

I have in my hands some samples of “Chew Pod”, in the two verison that exist: “Energy on demand” and “Sleep on demand”.

Both are a very good example of tabletted gum (made from gum in pwoder by means of a tabletting machine). The gum pieces have 3 horizontal layers, I assume that they serve technological purposes (like minimizing the stickiness to the tabletting machine) rather than aesthetical ones. The crumbliness (quite common in these type of products) is minimized, or i would say, even non-existing. The flavor has a very good lasting. They come in blisterpacks wth 8 pieces each.

The one that claims “Energy” contains Caffeine, Taurine and Guaraná seed extract (50mg, 50mg and 40mg respectively). The ones that claims “Sleep” contains Griffonia simplicifolia seed (5-HTP: 5-hydroxytryptophan) at 50mg per piece and 1,5 mg of Melatonin. Both versions contain vitamin B6 (pyridoxine HCl) and are sweetened with Sucralose.

The company that produces them is headquartered in California, USA and the product is manufactured in Canada.

You can learn more in a very attractive website: www.chewpod.com and also in www.khloros.ca (where I can see a thrid version of the product, named “Focus” but this does not seem to be in the market yet). You can also check the facebook page @chewpod and the instagram with the same label @chewpod , where this “Focus” version also appears.

In ISM I met Mr Nazareno Mario Ciccarello, CEO and CoFounder of the company Functional Gum s.r.l. in Italy, which were presenting their “DRIVE GUM”.

I mentioned this product in a previous post, but now I can update the information. It is a chewing gum in form of coated dragees and presented in blister pack (with 10 pieces per pack). The gum contains caffeine and claims “Energy + concentration” due to the fact of combining the well-know effect of caffeine on the body and also the studies that show that the action of chewing also helps to improve alertness. It comes with mint flavour. Its retail price is from 1,99 to 2,50 Eur per pack. It is sugarer, gluten free and claims the reduced calorie intake compared energy drinks (which could have the same effect on alertness). The company also advertises the convenience of using chewing gum for this purpose and, I would add, in general as a vector to include a functional ingredient.

A new energy gum has been launched in UK. It is named “RAW” and marketed by Navson, a mineral water company. They position this gum at lower price (18 pieces for 0,99 Pound; 1,2 Eur; 1,65 US$) than other competitors and do not use caffein (maybe the most obvious ingredient that comes to our mind when considering this product category). “RAW” contains Taurine and Vitamin B.

Other energy gums are mentioned in the article from confectionery news.com (link):